The Raw Rerun (4 Weeks Until Extreme Rules)

Monday night’s Raw from London didn’t have the same tremendous crowd from WrestleMania weekend, but it still made for an interesting atmosphere, which meant that Fandango was over again. Dolph was over again. As was the ayatollah of Rock and Rolla, Chris Jericho, who just looks like the biggest star in the company these days.

The Undertaker wrestled!

We got quite the treat on Raw. The Undertaker wrestled, just a few weeks after WrestleMania. It felt weird because I didn’t remember the last time Taker wrestled on regular television. And also, I thought he was hurting badly. Maybe he is. But it very much looks like he’s wrestling at WrestleMania 30.

Undertaker, Kane, and Daniel Bryan faced the Shield and no, the Shield didn’t lose. I fully expected Seth Rollins to take the Tombstone and look at the lights, but it didn’t happen. WWE rarely fails in main event spirited six-man tags and they didn’t fail here. It was nicely worked and Daniel Bryan needs to have a long match with Rollins. Bryan took the fall and the Shield is still undefeated. It was very good stuff.

Mick Foley scolds Ryback.

For some reason, Mick Foley was on the show. And his sole reason for being on the show was to scold Ryback for turning heel. Actually, it was to get Ryback’s heel turn over, but Ryback’s character completely falls apart when he opens his mouth.

Foley was good and logical, but Ryback’s verbiage and the way he anunciates his words simply makes him hard to get into. If he didn’t talk and had someone like Paul Heyman or Dirty Dutch talking for him, I think this would work really well.

After Ryback went after Mick Foley because Foley was trying to tell him to not take shortcuts, John Cena saved Foley. The Shield hit the ring and much like I predicted last week, they hit the ring on Ryback, and Cena saved him. But unlike what I predicted, after saving him, Cena AA’d him.

Dolph and Jericho can wrestle together forever.

Like I mentioned above, Jericho looked like the most over guy in the company with the London crowd. I dread when he takes another break. Why? Because he makes everyone look good no matter if he wins or loses. The Fandango craze? While I wouldn’t put it all on Jericho, it’s not by luck that Jericho was in the program with him when he started getting cheers. The music is the biggest deal, but Jericho has also worked wonders with him.

Dolph and Jericho had a fun match that kept my interest the entire way. Fandango’s music hit and Jericho was distracted enabling Ziggler to hit the Zig Zag for the win.

Later in the show, Fandango wrestled William Regal. After beating Regal, Fandango walked to the back and Jericho jumped him. And then he used his Dancing With The Stars skills to dance with Fandango’s lady. Fandango seethed. It was awesome.

And the rest…

- Paul Heyman said that Triple H wasn’t in London and would instead answer Brock Lesnar’s challenge next week. Oh, that Triple H. He lied. He was in London, pedigreed Heyman, and accepted Brock Lesnar’s steel cage match challenge. Why you gotta pedigree Heyman though?
- We might need to play TAPS on Antonio Cesaro’s career for the near future. He lost to R-Truth.
- Damian Sandow beat Brodus Clay and then a couple of matches later, Tensai beat Cody Rhodes. Yes. This feud is going to continue.
- Big E beat Zack Ryder who looks like he’s give up. Can’t really blame him though.
- AJ won a Divas Battle Royal to earn a title shot after playing possum and gold bricking (as Gorilla Monsoon would say) and then throwing out Layla. Whichever of the Bellas who won the top contender spot lost it because she cheated. Wow.

Overall, because of the two strong matches, the show was good. The Foley segment with Ryback didn’t quite work, but at least the time and effort to tell a story was there. They just ruined it by having Ryback talk so much.